DESCRIPTION (taken from the application): "The Third International Symposium on Paget's Disease," a satellite symposium of the joint ASBMR/IBMS Meeting to be held in San Francisco on December 1-5, 1998, will provide to clinicians and basic researchers a comprehensive program on the most recent advances made in Paget's disease research and treatment during the past three years. The juxtaposition of this Symposium to the ASBMR/IBMS Meeting, the largest bone meeting in the world, will permit both U.S. and international attendees with diverse interests to participate. It will be co-sponsored by the Paget's Foundation. This meeting will be conducted by an outstanding faculty and focus on several very recent developments in Paget's disease including: (1) Identification of a genetic locus for Paget's disease on chromosome 18q,, and the confirmation that there is more than one genetic locus for Paget's disease; (2) Identification of a tumor suppressor gene for osteosarcoma within the locus for Paget's disease on 18q, which may explain the markedly enhanced propensity of patients with Paget's disease to develop osteosarcomas; (3) Demonstration that there are paramyxoviral sequences in peripheral blood samples from Paget's disease, making the 25-year-old hypothesis that Paget's disease may be caused by a slow paramyxoviral infection testable; (4) New information on the molecular basis for the increased osteoclast formation in Paget's disease and in particular, the hyperresponsiveness of pagetic osteoclast precursors to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3; and (5) Novel insights into the mechanisms of action of bisphosphonates on suppressing osteoclast activity in patients with Paget's disease.